Let's be clear--while this book focuses on a baseball layer, and there is a lot about the game in the book, you do not need to have wither an interest nor an understanding of the game to enjoy this book. the author chooses not to center the book on strategy or on gamemanship. Instead he puts the spot light on making an error. The book takes place in an imaginary northern Wisconsin private school and its baseball star-in-the-making Henry Skrimshander. Henry is shy and awkward--not quite Asperbergers, but he is in the neighborhood, if not on the block. To make up for, or maybe it is at least partly because of his social stupidity, he is a gifted and disciplined shortstop and also a disciple of a handbook for middle infielders that gives the book its name. His single-minded pursuit of perfection leaves him as something of a cipher in the early going. He's a repetitive motion machine full of workouts and rituals custom-built by his teammate and flawed mentor Mike Schwartz, determined to become bigger, stronger and more obsessed with the game than anyone else. And he largely succeeds, doing so without causing much of a fuss because he is so dedicated. People respect his success because it comes as a result of hard work. He ends up almost error free as a result. But not quite. he makes a big one.
The issue of the book--and for Henry and the characters around him, is how recovery from our errors on and off the field gives shape to people's lives. There is a lot of texture to the story that I am leaving out, but that is the jist of it.
The characters in this book remind me of John Irving, and the story has shades of Richard Russo--it is spectacular.
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